Drs. Arthur Brown, Gregory Dekaban and Ravi Menon
Robarts Research Institute — where research brings discoveries and new technologies to clinical trial, to market, and ultimately, to you — faster.Drs. Arthur Brown, Gregory Dekaban and Ravi Menon, and their teams at Robarts Research Institute, are part of a collaborative effort to improve diagnosis and treatment of concussion. Using state-of-the-art imaging techniques, blood analyses, cognitive testing and clinical assessments, they are evaluating athletes from the Western University women's rugby team and London bantam-level hockey players to identify concussion biomarkers, establish guidelines for return to play and predict future risk.
To get a clear picture of the impact of concussion, Drs. Brown and Dekaban wanted to establish a baseline for concussion before injury and then monitor the effects of the injury during a specific period of time. Dr. Menon, an imaging scientist, tracks the physical effects of injury on the brain. Using brain images coupled with blood samples, the aim is to pinpoint the physical changes in the body that occur with concussion.
The three researchers are part of the Brain Injury Group (BIG) London, which is comprised of more than two dozen professionals, including physicians, scientists, educators and public health professionals, interested in studying everything from the biomechanics of why concussions occur to how to prevent them.